36

The caravan pulled deep into the warehouse. O’Leary got out of his SUV and watched the large overhead door slowly close. He lit a cigarette and waited for Winter to join him.

“Where are we going to put these women?” Winter asked.

“We’ll set up something here—at least for tonight.”

“This place ain’t exactly set up for taking care of women.”

“I know that. But, where else we got? This place has a bathroom and is only short-term. I’ll work on it tomorrow. I got a couple of properties where we can put them until we figure out what’s going on.”

“We’re going to catch some heavy heat over this.”

O’Leary thought of the listing of names he’d seen on the laptop he’d taken from Ariana’s office. “You got that right . . . it could very well turn out to be volcanic.” He glanced at his watch. “Come on, we got to get things organized. I want to be at Halsey’s place early in the morning. Before this is all over, I’m going to need a new lawyer.”

“Are we going after the kid?”

“Bet your ass we are.”

The women exited the bus and stood in the middle of the open space, staring at the dark interior. Winter chuckled. “About now they’re probably wondering what the fuck is gonna happen. This place is a long way from what they had, and they’re probably thinkin’ that we’re their new bosses.”

“They’ll settle down once they realize that they don’t have to turn tricks and can leave whenever they want.”

“I don’t know about that, boss. Just because we’ll let them go don’t mean they can survive. They’re illegal aliens, and if the names on that computer are any indication of the types of people that went to that house, there’s going to be a lot of interest in finding them before they can open their mouths.”

“I know. That’s why we’re going to make sure that anyone interested finds us before they find them.”